If William hadn’t met Catherine, she would have remained illiterate and he would have gone mad. If Gore, as proud and contemptuous as a Roman emperor, hadn’t known and immediately lost Jimmy, he wouldn’t have been the protagonist of one of the most scandalous sexual biographies of the 1900s. If Anthony hadn’t been troubled by his homosexuality, he never would have mentioned to his analyst that Vogue model, who shortly after would become his wife. If D.H. hadn’t fallen in love with Frieda, he never would have written the novel more censured than any other, and she wouldn’t have become the symbol of the unfaithful wife. Outlaw, prince, anarchist, poet, journalist, intellectual, philosopher, musician, mountaineer, racer, actor, director, novelist and president. The stories of many personalities fill the pages of this book: extraordinary lives photographed at the moment when luck, chance, the divine plan or whatever, put Love on their path. What counts is the chain of events, the magical way they link together that seems right out of a novelist’s fantasy. Whether you are romantic or sceptical, sentimental or rational, you’ll find yourself involved in the characters’ anguish, motivations and romantic hopes as you spy on the cards dealt by destiny from a privileged position, A marvellous book of love stories.